Portable electronic media devices, such as small portable digital music and video players, have become increasingly popular with consumers. Music jukeboxes, such as the Apple iPod®, allow consumers to store music files onto portable devices and to listen to those files almost anywhere. Portable video players, such as the iPhoto® and iMovie® products, allow storage and replay of photographic or video images.
Often with such devices, the user must link generally to a computer system in order to make significant changes and/or deletions to the portable media device storage. For example, if a user wants to delete audio and/or video files from the portable media device, they generally must first connect the device to a computer system (PC), then use specific applications on the PC that navigate the menus to eliminate, delete and/or change the audio/video files. Users operating the portable device must remember unwanted songs, pictures or data and then remember to perform the PC process in order to effect minor deletions, an operation contrary to the “portability” feature of the portable media device.
Similarly, devices may not allow the user to easily manipulate audio and video files to create new and creative combinations. Music videos, for example, are very popular with consumers and the ability to create such music videos “on-the-spot” when creatively inspired would be highly advantageous. Likewise, businessmen who frequently find themselves traveling or in meetings would benefit from the ability to create audio/visual presentations while away from their computers. Travelers would benefit from the ability to combine vocal commentary with stored map images, to create personalized itineraries that can be easily carried with them.
Often portable media devices cannot share files easily, as, for example, when a user wishes to share a music or video file with another portable media device. Typically, users must operate a PC and separately connect each portable device to move files from one device to the PC to the second device.
Users who create their own audio/video presentations would benefit from the ability to easily transfer the files to other users of portable devices, without requiring a computer intermediary. For example, a businessman who creates a business presentation may wish to send the presentation to colleagues in a meeting, all of whom could then review and/or edit the presentation on-the-spot. Similarly, users of portable media devices may wish to coordinate playback of audio and/or video content, as, for example, when traveling together. The ability to timeshare media content with other uses would allow contemporaneous review of the media by all recipients.